Austrian colleges ban religious symbols after ECJ caseEducation company says staff across country will 'work in Western clothes' following court ruling on hijab

An education company in Austria has banned its staff from wearing visible religious symbols following the decision of the EU's top court to allow such a block, local media said Wednesday.

BFI, which runs around a dozen vocational colleges across the country, said it had banned its employees from wearing "every kind of visible" religious symbol, the Kleine Zeitung newspaper reported.

In an interview hours after the European Court of Justice said it did not constitute "direct discrimination" to ban the wearing of any "political, philosophical or religious sign", company executive Wilhelm Techt said his staff would comply with "Western culture".